The Smaller Footprint

During our years in Tucson our small group read a book by Randy Frazee “Making Room fo Life”. The Navigator staff couple leading the group asked us to read and implement the changes in every area of our life. Our first change was to purchase a home in an area walking distance to school, a market, and would allow us to ride our bikes to and from work in good weather. Freeing ourselves from the additional expense of one car, and ultimately allowing ourselves more time as a family. We recently moved to a Texas and our home we selected had to fall into all the categories to be a “go”.

Walking home from work today took exactly 16 minutes.

These hidden blessings to our family have been the sunshine in the occasional cloud of inconvenience.

First off, our windshield time has been reduced dramatically. We stopped going in all different directions and started moving in the same direction as a family laughing, exercising and simply enjoying each others company as we are physically in each others presence.

Our school, tennis courts, restaurants, market and work are in close proximity to our neighborhood.

Walking to anywhere or riding your bike is not only is refreshing

During our years in Tucson our small group read a book by Randy Frazee “Making Room of Life”. The Navigator staff couple leading the group asked us to read and implement the changes in every area of our life. Our first change was to purchase a home in an area walking distance to school, a market and would allow us to ride our bikes to and from work in good weather. We are now free from the additional expense of one car. We recently moved to a Texas and our home we selected had to fall into all the categories to be a “go”.

Walking home from work today took exactly 16 minutes.

These hidden blessings to our family have been the sunshine in the occasional cloud of inconvenience.

First off, our windshield time has been reduced dramatically. We stopped going in all different directions and started moving in the same direction as a family laughing, exercising and simply enjoying physically being in each other’s presence.

Our school, tennis courts, restaurants, market and work are in close proximity to our neighborhood.

Walking to anywhere or riding your bike is not only is refreshing as you enjoy fresh air, we are together more often laughing while doing these things and modeling a smarter, simpler lifestyle for our teen.

Our daughter had a flat tire recently and undeterred rode her skateboard beside me as I rode my bike to the new breakfast spot that opened near our home. We ride our bikes to the orthodontist, our family doctor, the post office and the library. I rode my bike to pay my recent speeding ticket at the local police station.

My husband keeps our one car in tip-top shape, keeping up with repairs. We rent a car when taking long trips out-of-town, and when attending a women’s retreat in Dallas I was able to rent from Enterprise a nice sedan for the weekend.

We communicate each day about our various errands, talking through our day instead of living out our lives separately.

Park a car for a day, a weekend, and work up to a month and perhaps permanently. Methodically move towards a slower and healthier life creating a tight-knit family in today’s jam-packed lifestyle.

I advise something which frees you of additional financial pressures, your family leaves a visible smaller carbon footprint, and all relationships in your life especially the one with God have the space they need to flourish.

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3 thoughts on “The Smaller Footprint”

We all can learn from this example and make adjustment as needed based on where one lives and what they can afford.
In this fast paced world we need down time and family time.
It is slowly being taken away by technology.